Suffolk authorities bust major drug ring

Heroin on display at the Suffolk County district attorney's office in Hauppauge on Aug.12, 2014, where District Attorney Thomas Spota detailed the arrest of nearly two dozen individuals for allegedly selling heroin and cocaine throughout Suffolk County. Photo Credit: James Carbone

A Suffolk drug ring has been busted after making millions of dollars in street sales monthly and delivering "door to door" to midlevel distributors -- an operation fueled by Long Island's growing heroin epidemic, authorities said Tuesday.

Two major suppliers and 20 others were arrested July 30 after a yearlong probe by the Suffolk County Heroin Task Force, law enforcement officials said. They described the drug bust as one of the county's two largest this year.

Raids on two Brentwood houses used as drug packaging centers netted more than $207,000, 13 firearms and 11 pounds of heroin and cocaine. The heroin alone had a street value of $500,000 to $1 million, task force officials said.

"This, in my view, makes a major dent in drug trafficking," said Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota at a news conference with officials from the county sheriff's office and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

The traffickers, who primarily sold in Suffolk, took special precautions with cellphones, but still, undercover buys and a three-month wiretap were the key in exposing members and how they worked, task force authorities said.

"They were actually ditching or throwing away their phones virtually every 20 or 30 days. We'd have to find . . . the other phones" to wiretap, Spota said.

"They were very, very surveillance conscious," he said. "When a person would come to buy drugs, they had to drive around the block, what they call 'square the block,' in case somebody was following them."

Every two weeks, suppliers at the top of this heroin and cocaine chain, Elvis Castro, 28, of Amityville, and Juan Smith, 25, of Valley Stream, would sell an average of 5 kilograms of heroin, about 11 pounds, and 2 kilos of cocaine, or 4.5 pounds, to midlevel buyers or "resellers," authorities said.

Midlevel distributors who were "steady" buyers got a special service -- they'd have their drug orders delivered, Spota said: "They were the ones going to the exits off the [Long Island] Expressway and Sunrise Highway, and reselling to the end users."

Spota said Long Island is fertile ground for drug dealers: "It's an affluent area. People can afford to purchase the heroin, and it's readily accessible to them."

Castro, on parole for weapons possession and reckless endangerment, faces 20 years to life in prison on charges of second-degree conspiracy to distribute drugs, drug possession and weapons possession. His attorney could not be reached.

Smith, who served time on drug and weapons convictions, faces 15 to 30 years in prison on charges of second-degree conspiracy and drug possession.

His attorney, Ray Perini of Hauppauge, said Smith pleaded not guilty. "We'll test their proof in court," he said.

Both were held on a bail of $10 million bond or $5 million cash.All the suspects were from Long Island and only two of them were drug users, including a woman who is seven months pregnant, Spota said: "They knew the dangers of the poison they were selling."